SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 First Sunday of Advent

FROM THE DESK OF OUR PASTOR

Dear Friends,

Another Advent Season has just begun. In the world around us, where there is so much darkness of injustice and violence we are looking forward to the brightness of the midnight light of Bethlehem. While we enjoy the gift of religious freedom in our Western civilization, we all realize there are many places in the world where the religious freedom of our brothers and sisters is endangered. While most of us enjoy an economic stability, we recognize the presence of the poor around us. Advent and the upcoming Christmas season remind us that God comes into our midst to bring peace to the people of good will and the light to those who sit in darkness.

There will be several moments of light for our community too. In two weeks, on the 12th

of December in Cracow, we will be celebrating ordination of Deacon Piotr Lamprecht OSA to priesthood. This is quite a historical moment, because we all knew deacon Piotr for last two years and we were able to see how much he grew up among us. I may say that in many aspects Piotr became my right hand, serving in those places where I was not able to meet the needs of the community. I would like to thank you all who supported and sustained Piotr on his long journey towards priesthood. Fr. Piotr will say his First Mass on the 21

st of December in his home parish

in Wrocław and he will say his first mass in our parish in English on the 11th

of January 2015 at 12:15pm.

Our community will also celebrate another event that marks a formation to priesthood. This time in our church in Warsaw, at St. Paul’s, on the 14th

of December, the so called Gaudete Sunday, a young Augustinian seminarian, bro. Marcin Ukleja, OSA will be admitted to the ministry of acolyte, which he will receive through my hands in virtue of my office of Provincial Superior for the Augustinians in Poland. We all meet bro, Marcin quite often as he silently and cheerfully offers us fellowship table after Sunday Mass. This event will be another happy moment both for the Augustinian Order in Poland and our parish.

I would like to recommend also two ways of preparation to Advent. One is to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation of both the children and the adults. On the 7

th and 14

th of December two extra priests will be ready to listen to our confessions. It will be celebrated in the Chapel of Lady from

11:00 am onwards.

Another way to prepare for Christmas will be to support the Warsaw Community of Sant’Egidio in preparation of a Christmas Dinner for the homeless and with the homeless of Warsaw. You will find more information on this enterprise in the current issue of this newsletter. Certainly, every day we are surrounded by many charities but this is something which may provoke each of us to touch the homeless experience almost directly.

And last but not least, Pope Francis announced this Church year, a year of Consecrated life. That means it is dedicated to all the friars, nuns, sisters, monks and consecrated persons who strive to live according to the spirit of the 8 Beatitudes. I am sure that in our parish we will have many opportunities to reflect upon this topic.

I wish to all of you that this Advent season will be a blessed time of spiritual renewal before we all go to adore Holy Infant Jesus in a dark, poor grotto of Bethlehem.

God bless us all

Fr. Wieslaw Dawidowski, OSA

St. Paul's English Speaking Catholic Parish of Warsaw Church of the Nativity of Our Lady (Narodzenia NMP na Lesznie) at

Al. Solidarnosci 80 CCD: 11:00 Sundays Holy Mass: 12.15 Sundays Confessions: Sundays 11.30-12.15 Saturday 17.00-18.00 Weekdays by appointment, call Father Father Wiesław Dawidowski 600-384-916 w.dawidowski@gmail.com

Like and follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/saintpaulswarsaw or online at http://warsawcatholics.pl/

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 2

DAYS OF CONFESSION

7th of December – 11:00 – 12:00 am children’s Confession

Confession for the adults during the Mass.

14th of December – 11:00 children’s and adults Confession

O, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you. I detest all my sins because of your just punishment, but most of all because they offend you, my God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin.

PRIESTHOOD ORDINATION and trip to Cracow

Ordination will take place on 12th of December at 6:00 PM at the St. Catherine’s Church, Cracow, Augustiańska 7 Street.

Map: http://mapa.targeo.pl/augustianska/7/krakow/ulica

A comfortable mini van will depart at 8:00 am from Aleja Solidarności 80 to Cracow. Return on Saturday at 5:00 PM (departure). Price is 90 PLN for a round trip. You can check the quality of the van online http://www.transtomvip.pl/isuzu_turquoise

16 people have registered so far. There are still free places on the van.

If you consider coming to Cracow and to stay overnight please contact directly Fr. Wieslaw at w.dawidowski@gmail.com

See the last page for more information.

If you signed in already, please contact Fr. Wiesław at his email address just to confirm that you are coming.

November 30th – Peter, Martha, Russel, Adriana December 24th – All who will come

December 7th – Reese, Cecilia, Chadwick, Reiley December 25th – All who will come

December 14th – Raphael, Leo, Michele, Russel

December 21st - Reese, Cecilia, Chadwick, Reiley

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 3

Christmas Mass in English in will be celebrated on

24th of December at 10:00 PM.

Masses at Christmas Octave will be as followed:

25th of December, Christmas Day, Mass at 12:15

28th of December – Holy Family – Mass at 12:15

1st of January – New Years Day – Mass at 12:15

6th of January – Epiphany – Mass at 12:15

PARISH CHARITY FOR ADVENT 2014

Time of Advent is here, the time of happy a waiting for Christmas. However, we all know that many people in this city, country, and around the world will find it difficult to celebrate as they struggle to make ends meet and to provide for even the most basic needs. As every year, also this Advent we will call on our parishioners to show generosity by helping those less fortunate. Parish Council members reviewed a few proposals during the last meeting and we have decided to assist the organization which for the last 5 years successfully organized traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner (Wigilia) for a large group of homeless adults.

St Egidio organization not only provide (buy, cook, serve) this special dinner for over 200 homeless people, but they also sit and eat with the group as well as present them with a small useful gift. The goal for our parish would be to try to support them mainly in these two aspects by suppling donations and money: 300 plastic plates is still needed as well as monetary donation to buy 60 pieces of carp. They could also use support in donations of food items, gift items and also helping on the day of the dinner to decorate the dinning hall and serve the dinner. Our CCD classes will work on decoration items and will organize a bake sale to raise money, we will have 2 special collections during the Mass on December 7 and December 14, there will be boxes placed in the church throughout Advent to accept donations of the needed items. If you would like to attend and help serve the dinner please contact them directly at santegidio.waw@gmail.com or contact our charity coordinator Colleen Chaney at cpc@caritas.us For other details and lists of needed items please check the special insert to this bulletin.

7th of December – Baptism of Arthur Nolan. Congratulations and welcome to the Church!

7th December- Parish bake sale to raise money for Parish Charity for Advent

12 of December – Deacon Piotr Ordination to priesthood

14th of December – Bro. Martin Ukleja, OSA, acolyte blessing

18th to 25th of January – week of prayer for Christian unity. Possible ecumenical service.

25th of January – Feast of St. Paul; Annual Parish Brunch

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 4

CALL FOR SOCIAL EVENTS COORDINATOR Related to the event described above and possibly a few other social occasions, we would like to place a call for a willing volunteer to join us on the Parish Council in the function of our social events coordinator. If you have some time and skill to donate please get in touch with any of the present Parish Council members. We would be very glad if you could join us! THANK YOU FOR THE MISSALS DONATION

Due to changes in our parish, the expenses related to the move, and other various factors, our parish found itself at the start of this school year with quite depleted funds. One of our larger annual expenses is purchasing the Heritage Missals that we use every Sunday at church. These are ordered from the USA and we have to pay the shipment and the custom duties on top of the cost of the books. In such situation Fr. Wieslaw and the Parish Council decided to present the situation to the congregation in order to call for help, which resulted in a very generous act of our parishioners Paul and Anna Cripps who decided to fully cover the cost of this

order! Dear Paul & Anna, on behalf of the whole community we wish to express our deep gratitude for your kindness and generosity! Thank you and God bless! THANK YOU TO OUR BAKERS

We have a new church, a new hour and new venue for our after Mass refreshments, but the appetite for a warm cup of coffee and some treats to go with it, is still the same as it was on Radna! Therefore, dear bakers, you are greatly appreciated, especially by our youngsters! We wish to thank those who have already contributed treats since the start of the school year - many of you more than once! - and we also call on others to volunteer. Thank you very much: Roccheggiani

family, Berka family, Iliana Cruz, Agnieszka Brzoza-Wyatt, Kate Szyszko, Lalaine Visalda, Elsa Chua, Abrahan family, Visalda family, Vuina family, Sturgeon family, Gael, Rogucki family, Cherubim, Ileana Musi. Please see Tanja to sign-up to bring treats for future Sunday dates. Fellowship is a wonderful time for parishioners to come together and to get to know one another, it is a wonderful way to bring the community together. If you are new, please join us for fellowship, we would love to welcome you!

ANNUAL PARISH FEAST, JANUARY 25

Our annual tradition is to commemorate the feast day of our patron St. Paul the Apostle with a parish brunch. It will be held on Sunday, January 25, 2015. The venue and the cost is yet to be decided, but we would like you to reserve this date. The brunch will start after Mass and it usually lasts for up to 3 hours. We would plan to have a buffet lunch with a selection of hot and cold dishes, a separate special menu for the children and tea, coffee and soft drinks included. We often have supervised entertainment for children so that their parents can relax and chat

with parishioners, getting to know each other better. Sometimes a quiz with prizes, a raffle or other kind of entertainment is also organized for adults, so stay tuned...

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 5

Guess what Father Wiesław Dawidowski’s favorites are? Here are the answers in bold. A little bit of a trick, a few questions had several correct answers.

What is his favorite type of food? Italian Spanish Curry Fish Soup Salad German What dish does he make the best? Sushi Mussels Pasta Salad Cake What is his favorite color? Black Orange Red Blue Green Where does he like to vacation? Beach Mountains Island Big City Where is his favorite place to walk in Warsaw? Along the Wisla Ogrod Saski Lazienki Saska Kepa What are his hobbies? Painting Puzzles Singing Opera Guitar Fixing Cars Hiking What is his favorite animal? Cat Pig Horse Cow Racoon Dog Fox Elephant What is his favorite type of pie? American Apple Pie German Chocolate Cake American Pumpkin Pie What is his favorite season? Winter Spring Summer Fall

Parish Directory:

Father Wiesław Dawidowski 600-384-916 w.dawidowski@gmail.com Deacon Piotre Lamprecht 518-414-885 piotr.lamprecht@gmail.com

Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) Meets Sundays now Contact: Deacon Piotre Lamprecht OSA 518-414-885

Saint Paul’s Parish Youth Group Contact: Deacon Piotr (mobile: 518414885) or find us on Facebook (Youth Group at Saint Paul's)

Parish Council If you would like to join the parish council contact Fr. Wieslaw or Tanja Kusanovic (PC chair, tanja210@live.com

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) If you would like to volunteer with CCD, please contact the religious education director Conch tiuson.yao@gmail.com A complete listing will be updated for the next bulletin

Morning Offering Prayer: Jesus, through the

Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers,

works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the

intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for

the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the

reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the

intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen

3 Minute Retreats:

http://www.loyolapress.com/3-minute-retreats-daily-

online-prayer.htm

Daily Devotions: https://www.livingfaith.com/

Pope Calls for Year of Consecrated Life (read more

here at)

http://www.catholictranscript.org/homepage/internati

onal-news/3231-pope-calls-for-year-of-focus-on-

consecrated-life.html

Advent and Christmas Season

http://www.catholic.org/clife/advent/

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 6

Br. PIOTR's ORDINATION Our dear Deacon and Fr. Wieslaw's right hand Brother Piotr is approaching his big day, the day of his ordination into the priesthood! This wonderful celebration will take place at the Augustinian monastery in the historical Kazimierz district of Krakow on Friday, December 12, at 18:00 in the presence of the numerous family members, friends, dignitaries and colleagues of the celebrant. As it was already announced at the church, a trip is being planned to also take our interested parishioners to Krakow in order to take part in Br. Piotr's celebration. The minivan will depart from the church on Friday morning at 8:00am and the cost of the transportation will be divided among those traveling, approximately 90PLN per person. A stop at the Czestochowa sanctuary is planned on the way. In Krakow the accommodation will be in the hotel Secesia which is near the Augustinian church. The rooms were reserved by Fr. Wieslaw and will be paid by each individual or family upon arrival - 150PLN for a single room and 182PLN for a double room. After the Ordination Mass all are invited by Br. Piotr to a reception. The following day there will be an opportunity for a guided tour of Krakow. The return trip to Warsaw is planned for the afternoon. Below is the list of travelers. If you still wish to join or if you are already listed, but you changed your plans, please let Fr. Wieslaw know asap (w.dawidowski@gmail.com). ILEANA MUSI ACOSLA - 2, no hotel RONALDO - 5 (+ the twin babies) REILLY - 1 PEG BELSHE - 1, returning earlier on Saturday by train JENNIFER STURGEON - 4, no transportation or hotel ANNA SZALASNA - 1 PAULINE BYRNE - 1 GRACE MARY – 1 MAREK KAMINSKI - 1 SUZANNE MILLER - 1 Sr. YOLANDA – 1 TANJA KUSANOVIC - 1, no transportation or hotel